A Thousand Victories, A Thousand Memories

There is an innocence about De Paul basketball that has persisted during its rise to a spot among the nation`s finest college basketball teams.

So Ray Meyer wasn`t being disingenuous when he shook his head in wonder at the thought of what the Blue Demons accomplished Thursday night.

The victory against bitter Chicago rival Loyola was a sweet 1,000th for De Paul. Only Kentucky and De Paul have won that many games and also managed to hold the losses under 500. The Demons have been defeated 467 times since the program began modestly in 1923-24 with an 8-6 record.

Meyer, who retired as head coach in 1984 after a 42-year record of 724-354, can remember when De Paul was no match for Kentucky. To see the two schools share an accomplishment makes him marvel.

``Adolph Rupp called me in 1970 and wanted a favor,`` Meyer said.

``Somebody had pulled out of his tournament at Kentucky, and he wanted us to take their place.

``I didn`t necessarily want to go because we didn`t have a good team. But Rupp insisted. `You`ve got to help me out,` he said. So we went down there and got beat by 30 points (Actually, De Paul lost 106-85 to the Wildcats in the Kentucky Invitational.) Afterward, Rupp said to me about my team, `Kentucky has better intramural teams than that.` ``

Joey Meyer was the senior captain of that undistinguished club. Ray`s son was capable of scoring big-time--he`s now 10th on De Paul`s all-time scoring list--but in grabbing the coaching baton from his dad he has taken the biggest jump shot of his life and begun to connect with impressive consistency.

Joey`s last year as a player nearly was the last year for the basketball program in NCAA Division I. The school fathers pondered at this low ebb--when you would have laughed to see De Paul merchandise for sale in your local department store--whether they would be better served by reducing expectations and shifting to Division II or III.

``That was the crossroads,`` Ray Meyer said. ``I would have left De Paul if they had decided to change the level of competition.

``But George Mikan, myself and a couple other of my players helped convince them to remain Division I. They let me hire Joey as an assistant, and, once he started to bring in the high school players over the next few years, the program took off.``

The story has been well documented about the sudden reversal in fortunes. An Andy Pancratz led to a Dave Corzine and Joe Ponsetto, and they led to Clyde Bradshaw and Mark Aguirre, and they led to Terry Cummings and Tyrone Corbin, and they led to Dallas Comegys and Rod Strickland.

From 1977 through 1982, De Paul lost just 15 games and won 132. That cemented a relationship with the fans of Chicago that had been tenuous and, some years, virtually non-existent.

``We couldn`t put people in the stands and, as one newspaperman told me back in the 1960s, if they aren`t going to come watch you then they don`t want to read about you, either,`` Ray Meyer said. ``With almost no publicity, it seemed no one knew about us.``

Then came 1978 and a regionally televised game at Notre Dame. Meyer points to that day`s Cinderella events as the day the country first noticed De Paul fit the glass slipper.

``Providence and North Carolina were the national game, but they flashed back to us during their game,`` he recalled. ``When they ended, the nation`s TVs were focused on us as we went to overtime against Notre Dame.

``We were down a point with six seconds to play and Notre Dame was at the foul line. But they missed, Corzine rebounded it off the front of the rim and passed to Gary Garland at center court. He took two dribbles and let it go.

``I was in line with the shot, and I said to myself, `My God, it`s going to be good.` It was, and we won (69-68). It was the start of our national reputation.``

This season began a stretch of postseason appearances for De Paul that will be kept alive this year. The Demons are bound for their 10th straight invitation to keep playing after the regular season. They`ve been in the NCAA playoffs eight times since 1978 and in the National Invitation Tournament once.

Their reputation grew by leaps and rebounds when De Paul reached the NCAA Final Four in 1979. The Demons fell short, losing 76-74 to Indiana State in the semifinals, but already prep and grammar school boys who watched TV were drawn by the magic of the little school that could.

But there are no overnight successes. De Paul evolved to where it is. It`s only right that each decade have a spokesman of its own, who can remember how it was.

1940s

The two most influential players in De Paul history have to be Mark Aguirre and George Mikan. The former brought the Demons their first success, and the latter made people take notice of them in an age when 6-foot-9-inch players almost were aliens.

Mikan probably gives Meyer greater credit for his development than any other player, because he didn`t even play basketball in high school.